Natwar, others asked to appear before ED

The matter pertains to the violation of FEMA in Iraq's oil-for-food scam by them.

Former external affairs minister K Natwar Singh and others were on Friday asked by the Enforcement Directorate to appear before it in the last week of this month for adjudication of a case of alleged violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in Iraq's oil-for-food scam.

The ED waited for over three months for replies from Singh, his son Jagat, NRI businessman Aditya Khanna, Hamdaan Exports owner Andaleeb Sehgal and two others before deciding to put the case to adjudication as the concerned parties, barring a few, continued to delay the filing of their replies on one pretext or the other, official sources said.

Singh and the others were issued show cause notices by the ED on September 2, asking them to file replies to the Directorate within a month. This was later extended by another fortnight.

While Assad Ahmed, the son of a Congress leader, and Sehghal's business associate Vikas Dhar had submitted their replies to the ED, Sehgal sent in a preliminary reply and sought more time from the Directorate, sources said.

Singh had not submitted his reply and had asked for more documents from the ED on several occasions, sources claimed.

According to the ED's show cause notice, Singh has been accused of allegedly "jointly and severally" acquiring foreign exchange totalling 8.9 lakh dollars in contravention of FEMA regulations with his son Jagat and three others.

The likely date for their appearance before the ED's adjudicator Akhilesh Das is December 28, sources said.